Threaded fasteners have long been used to join two or more components. It has been found advantageous to easily prelocate a threaded fastener and mate parts prior to torque tightening the fastener into location by rotating along a thread helix. This is particularly true with assemblies where the orientation and weight of the mating parts require that the parts be held in place while a driving tool is retrieved and placed in location to engage the fastener for tightening the fastener in place.
Previous snap in fasteners have been overly complicated and added unacceptable costs to fasteners when used in high volume during an assembly line operation.
What is needed is a low cost threaded fastener with a retainer that can be pushed into position with a low entry force and be able to resist a much higher exiting or pulling force to temporarily hold two mating parts together.